Hi! I am reading this post and helps to keep me positive. I am 33 and have IV stage endo. We are trying to get pregnant from last 3 yrs and after laproscopy finally stared my IVF yesterday. Other than dr. treatment and medications please suggest if I can change anything in my lifestyle, eating habits or any thing else to improve my chances. I don't drink and smoke, vegetarian. I saw some people posted about putting hot water bottle, walks etc. Also should i avoid drinking milk or switch to organic milk?

There are many things you can do to try and help endo generally in terms of diet but ultimately we don't know how endometriosis lesions communicate with the endocrine and immune systems and evidence shows that thorough excision greatly improves chances of conception with stage 4. Treatment for endo, especially stage 4, is about much more than infertility and there is the risk of damage to the bowel, bladder and ureters if you have advanced disease including rectovaginal endo. Excision is the recommended treatment by the NHS in the UK and I believe this is the case in the US. It should also be considered that if you have your uterus and tubes adherent to your bowel and other structures such as the pelvic side wall by dense adhesions then a pregnancy can be extremely painful and this probably also contributes to the low success rates with stage 4. I am only advising on evidence-based recommendations in the UK that do not recommend complimentary therapies as an alternative to surgical excision. Such therapies may have an important role to play in early endo or after excision but it has to be a personal choice to use these in preference to recommended treatment for severe disease. You would be wise to look at your options for finding a specialist surgeon and could join a facebook group called Endometropolis who have advice on US treatment.

Below is a reply I posted recently about diet but please note that I am not recommending this as a treatment for stage 4 endo because it will very much depend on where you have it and what organs are implicated. Using complimentary therapies could mask progression of disease in the same way that contraceptives often do.

Hi, I changed my lifestyle a lot really limited alcohol and ate foods as recommended on endo diets but also upped my protein, loads of good oils and avocados, went to reflexologist and tried out bee pollen. I was on zoladex for 6 months after a lap and stopped for 3 weeks prior to starting ivf - after 3 weeks of ivf drugs they noticed I was already pregnant - so there is hope for stage 4 endo. I really hope all goes well on your journey - I found reflexology so relaxing (they should be trained in fertility)

During my successful IVF cycle I only changed one thing and that was eating a lot of protein. Plenty of turkey, full fat milk, chicken and protein bars from health food shops. My Dr's said there was some research that suggested protein helped with egg quality. On my first unsuccessful cycle I had acupuncture and did all sorts of stuff but to no avail whereas I relaxed on my second. Ate a healthy diet as normal, didn't drink and increased protein intake. Good luck with it. Wishing you success. X